French Guiana - Saint-Laurent Du Maroni

Saint-Laurent du Maroni.

Sent by Cheryll of Suriname from French Guiana. 

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ loʁɑ̃ dy maʁɔni], lit. 'Saint-Laurent of the Maroni'; French Guianese Creole: Sen-Laurent-di-Maronni) is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is one of the three sub-prefectures of French Guiana and the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. It is the second most populous city of French Guiana, with 50,250 inhabitants at the January 2021 census (read further).

French Guiana - Centre Spatial Guyanais

Cente Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, French Guiana.
1995-2012
Inaugural flights; Ariane 5 (1995), Soyouz (2011), and Vega (2012).

Sent by Eric of Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana.

The Guiana Space Centre or, more commonly, Centre spatial guyanais (CSG) is a French and European spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. Operational since 1968, it is particularly suitable as a location for a spaceport as it fulfills the two major geographical requirements of such a site:

• it is quite close to the equator, so that the spinning earth can impart some extra velocity to the rockets for free when launched eastward, and
• it has uninhabited territory (in this case, open sea) to the east, so that lower stages of rockets and debris from launch failures cannot fall on human habitations.

The European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES, and the commercial Arianespace company conduct launches from Kourou. This is the spaceport used by the ESA to send supplies to the International Space Station using the Automated Transfer Vehicle.

The location was selected in 1964 to become the spaceport of France. When the European Space Agency (ESA) was founded in 1975, France offered to share Kourou with ESA. Commercial launches are bought also by non-European companies. ESA pays two thirds of the spaceport's annual budget and has also financed the upgrades made during the development of the Ariane launchers. (read further)

French Guiana

French Guiana

Sent by Chunly from Jahouvey in French Guiana.

French Guiana (French: Guyane française; officially just Guiana, French: Guyane) is an overseas region of France on the north Atlantic coast of South America. It borders Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west. Its 83,534 km² (32,253 sq mi) area has a very low population density of less than 3 inhabitants per km², with half of its 239,450 people in 2012 living in the metropolitan area of Cayenne, its capital. By land area it is by far the largest overseas region of France. As an oversea region, it is inside the European Union.

The addition of the adjective "French" in English comes from colonial times when five such colonies existed (The Guianas), namely from west to east: Spanish Guiana (now Guayana Region in Venezuela), British Guiana (now Guyana), Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), French Guiana, and Portuguese Guiana (now Amapá, a state in far northern Brazil). French Guiana and the two larger countries to the north and west, Guyana and Suriname, are still often collectively referred to as the Guianas and comprise one large shield landmass.

A large part of the department's economy derives from the presence of the Guiana Space Centre, now the European Space Agency's primary launch site near the equator. (read further)

French Guiana - Cayenne

Multiview of Cayenne, a capital of French Guiana.

Sent by Amine, a Facebook friend from Algeria.

Note : Still waiting for the first postcard sent postmarked in French Guiana.